Monday, October 18, 2010

Tevez was terrific with two goals and Manchester City looked hungry. Still, they did leak a couple and Blackpool should nto have been given a hope by Mancini's boys.

Bear in mind, the goals were conceded late in the game.

Otherwise, Arsenal just about did enough to warrant their 3 point haul against West Midlands' finest.

Before you attack me, Aston Villa is not as good as Birmingham, at least not so far this season - I don't care what the league table says. Carew is a half-decent striker and Heskey is past it. Gaby Agbonlahor is decent, though.

I still prefer Jerome, Benitez and McFadden. Alex McCleish is also a man's manager. And we need more men in footie like Roy Carroll - a court case makes football exciting, just ask my team, Liverpool.

Monday, October 11, 2010

He wants Neuer to replace Edwin - and Schalke looks poor so he could be RedDevil in January. Arsenal needs Neuer. But Ferguson is like a boy who stares at a pretty girl in high school for 5 years nad dosen't ask her anything, ever.

Photograph by: MARIO ANZUONI Credit: REUTERS The First Post website reported that Jay-Z was prepared to move to London with pop star wife Beyonce to work with the club.

Earlier this year, the rapper said he'd like to invest in the club, but now he wants a "hands-on" role, the website reported.

"We would have to spend much more time in London. Bey knows how much I love sports and has known about my interest in Arsenal for a while," he said.

"I never want to be a back-seat investor. I want to be on the board, involved in the decision-making. I'm at the stage of my career where I am ready for another investment like this. "

Jay-Z, 40, already has a part share in the New Jersey Nets basketball team and was rumoured to have tried, unsuccessfully, to persuade his friend LeBron James to join the team.

So:

Jay-Z - great rapper. Good businessman. He's a real mensch but he cannot run a footie club. Can anyone?

I got 99 problems but injuries aint oneHit me

And it's a hard knock lifeFor CescIt's a hard knock life for himBarca has bet-ta weatherBarca has hot-ter chicksIt's a hard knock life

I love goalsgoalsgoalsgoalsgoals i do adoreput my fot to that ball run it alon the groundlong balls are so Liver-fool Posted by Alistair Anderson at 9:57 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz Wednesday, August 25, 2010Isn't it funny how Mourinho is an authority on the premier league, even though he now works in Spain? Jose Mourinho is the new authority on British football even though he now manages one of the most media-scrutinised football clubs on Earth, in Spain.

After Liverpool’s defeat to Manchester City on Monday, he said the latter could win the league if its players were hungry enough, while the former could be written-off, along with Arsenal, as a potential champion. Well, no way Jose, but your comments are not very profound at all.

Liverpool is quite rubbish because its players have been shown for what they are – rubbish, overall.

Manchester City has to gel rather quickly in football terms. It would be tough for any group of players to click under so much pressure.

Although, Mr Mourinho may already be breaking this adage. Real Madrid has been impressive in its preseason friendlies, considering how many different combinations Jose has used. I predicted a 2 nil win against Penarol and badda bing and what excellent play from Rafael van der Vaart, who had considered leaving the club. Now, he wants to stay and that will only make the Merengues stronger.

I see them taking the La Liga and – maybe the Champions League. They are due a good run in Europe and I actually think they are better than Barcelona, on paper.

Barca is extremely talented but they play like Spain and Spain is beatable if people try to muscle them and attack against them. If nothing else, Real has a better defence than Pep’s boys. One wonders if Bayern Munich will be able to challenge Real come the Champs League semi-final – probably not. Muller may be Germany’s Pelé but Munich is still a bit flimsy at the back.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/england/7963315/Jose-Mourinho-lambasts-Fabio-Capello-and-Liverpool-but-respects-Paul-Scholes.html Posted by Alistair Anderson at 3:22 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz Tuesday, August 17, 2010Oppikoppi ooky As Published in Business Day newspaper

The Insider’s colleague remains baffled as to how the Oppikoppi music festival organisers can afford to have four fancy stages with world-class music equipment and lighting facilities and host a few international music acts to boot and still not afford more than 40-odd toilets and showers for 7000-odd people.

It may have been the way of the festival which ran over the Women’s day weekend not to wash for the three days for which the event runs and do ones business in bushes, warning passers-by of your debris by putting bits of toilet paper in trees above it but sometimes el naturale just feels too barbaric. If for nothing else, a bit more hygiene would make romantic kisses and other pleasantries with drunk people you have never met and never want to see again more bearable, especially when sweating in 30 degree temperatures with the body heat of hundreds of Valiant Swart fans crowding you. Posted by Alistair Anderson at 12:16 PM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz Tuesday, July 20, 2010Sharenet releases controversial security Alistair Anderson, courtesy of Business Day newspaper

Contributing Writer

Online market information and service provider, Sharenet has established a Contract For Difference (CFD) offering, it announced on Friday.

Some investors have been reluctant to buy CFDs worldwide in the past because of the number of risks associated with them and the ease with which people can lose their money invested in them due to those risks. They have been banned in the US because of these dangers.

However, Sharenet believed its CFD service was a good option for potential investors.

"We can proudly say that SharenetCFDs is the premier choice. Not only is it built onSharenet’s ethos and foundations of transparency, customer service and IT excellence, but (it) also capitalises on international expertise, partnering with IG Markets in the UK," Sharenet said.

A CFD is an agreement between a buyer and a seller stipulating that the seller will pay the buyer the difference between the current value of a stock and its value when the contract is made.

If the difference turns out to be negative, the buyer pays the seller. The purpose of a CFD is to allow investors to speculate on the movement of the price of the underlying stock without having to own the shares.

The company Strate is a Central Securities Depository which provides clearing, settlement and depository services for securities that facilitate the management of risk and the realisation of value for investors in SA.

People have chosen CFDs over stock options because of how simple their pricing system has been and because of their range of underlying instruments. For example, option pricing incorporates the time premium that decays as it nears expiration.

CFDs only reflect the price of the underlying security. Because they do not have an expiration date, there is no premium to decay.

The main risk of the financial instrument is that the other party in the contract would unable to meet the obligation.

Investors use a margin system to trade CFDs. This means that if the value of the portfolio falls below the minimum level, an investor is subject to a margin call.

When a person buys on margin, they take out a partial loan from a broker to cover a larger investment, a CFD, for example, than they could normally afford to cover. A margin call then occurs when the amount of actual capital the investor has falls below a set percentage of the total investment or CFD.

Profit and loss on CFD trades take place when an investor executes a closing trade.

Because CFDs can employ a high degree of leverage, investors can lose money quickly should the price of the underlying security move in the undesired direction.

Sharenet said its CFD service would not involve a securities tax or Strate fees.

CFDs have also been criticised in the past for the volatile nature.

Sasha Naryshkine of Vestact Management said his feelings against leverage-based investments were not changed by CFDs.

“I’m not a fan of CFDs. Professionals have got them horribly wrong before and now we are expecting ordinary people to manage them too. The problem is that there value is very volatile,” he said. Posted by Alistair Anderson at 2:40 AM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz Monday, July 19, 2010Shiny Happy People Forbes.com has released lists of countries where the happiest people in the world live but South Africa has made a poor showing on them.

On Forbes’ European sub-list, interestingly people resident in the losers of the Fifa Soccer World Cup Final, the Netherlands were rated to be happier than those living in the winning country, Spain.

Forbes said that the levels of happiness were to do with how wealthy people were, on average, in each country. Surprise, surprise then that the five happiest countries in the world—Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the Netherlands--are all clustered in the same region.

The research was done by the Gallup World Poll, where thousands of respondents in 155 countries, between 2005 and 2009, were surveyed, in order to measure two kinds of well-being.

Subjects were asked to reflect on their overall satisfaction with their lives, and rank their answers using a "life evaluation" score between one and ten. Then they were asked about how they had felt the previous day.

Whether or not Forbes is trying to tell us that we should think more highly of Scandinavian people and other tall, blonde-haired folks, is debatable, either way, the Insider would like to know why South Africa wasn’t even on the top three African countries list.

Malawi was first Libya, second and Botswana, third. In terms of size of Gross Domestic Product, these three countries do not even rival Johannesburg. Perhaps South Africans are just pessimistic. Posted by Alistair Anderson at 1:45 PM 0 comments Email This BlogThis! Share to Twitter Share to Facebook Share to Google Buzz Home

Monday, March 8, 2010

I am disgusted by calls to test her gender. She should sue the dirty chunks of media in the Constitutional Court.

She may be our only gold medal winner at IAAF this year. She’s worked to get where she has. She had to qualify and qualify and qualify. It’s flipping tough to run like that.

After she won the medal, the Supersport studio was quiet and filled with rubbish. They just wanted to joke about Semenya because some schmuck did the same thing on the radio earlier and the day before.

Plus, she clearly looks female. People who doubt that are an embarrassment to humanity.

Latest comment - “She doesn’t give a damn about the gender scandal surrounding her” eTV – brave words but still she must have found the allegations hurt a little or has there been worse adversity in her life.

We can argue that sportsmen should or should not be supported but this woman deserves dignity.Saving the economy starts in the classroomJuly 23rd, 2009 . Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Universities need to play a role in preventing financial crises according to the world’s brightest minds. Has Wits heeded the call?

Both economists and financiers are arguing – in the throes of the most serious financial crisis since the Great Depression – that universities need to teach their students how to avoid the mistakes their predecessors made.

In his recent presentation at Wits, Nobel Prize winning economist, Joseph Stiglitzargued that the old “one person taking care of his own wants” model was insufficient.

He felt more attention should be given to the way the decisions of economic players all affect each other. But in the wake of his talk, the audience was left without a concrete solution. Stiglitz didn’t explicitly suggest what model was more suitable.

“Since he’s speaking to a university, I expect him to spend more time discussing how the teachings should change” a student was heard to say.

Commenting on Stiglitz’s plea, Wits Finance Professor Christo Auret, said: “Each lecturer has his or her own style. What is important is the content and, obviously, we are keeping up with the latest developments. We do not however have the luxury of a previous Nobel prize winner as lecturer.”

Kenneth Creamer, an economics lecturer added: “I think that the teaching of economics is enhanced by the kind of polemics that are raised by Joseph Stiglitz.”

“I think it is important that students are taught to think about both sides of debates on important policy frameworks such as inflation targeting. It is pedagogically barren simply to teach critiques of policy frameworks without building up a thorough understanding of the rationale supporting these frameworks.”

Another critique getting attention at the moment is that of a professor from Australia, who predicted the economic crisis.

In his book, Debunking Economics, Associate Professor of Economics and Finance at the University of Western Sydney, Steve Keen, argues that modern economics is directly to blame for the crisis.

He says their assumptions evade reality, and are undesirable because they are inefficient. The conclusions of economists are far too sensitive to slight changes in these assumptions.

The book’s conclusion looks at economic schools of thought in general. “None of these is at present strong enough or complete enough to declare itself a contender for the title of ‘the’ economic theory of the 21st century.”

Wits may not offer Nobel Laureates as lecturers, but even the “great minds” of the world don’t seem to agree on or even know how to solve the most serious economic problems we’ve had to face for generations.

I’ve been told my blog reads like a series of tweets - I don’t mind that; tweets are popular. However, they tend to relate to peoples’ doings in life, more than to their opinions on things. Yes tweets do report.

So is one of the greatest players ever leaving Milano? A Spanish media report said he is to go to Real Madrid for 65 Million Euros. That would be a record for any player, if I’m not correct; it would be a ton of cash. The deal is reported to be for 5 years. In case you didn’t know, Kaka, Ricardo Izecson dos Santos Leite, is a 27 year old Brazilian football player. Thus a five year deal at Real Madrid would probably finish off his career. He could play a season at Sao Paulo or something afterward but this would be the ‘2nd prime of his career’.

Wherever Kaka plays, he is likely to do well. I hope he continues to give awesome interviews like he did in Esquire in 2007. A ‘gentleman’; they call him. He doesn’t dive - at least I have not yet seen him do so.

What does this mean for C Ronaldo? Will they still buy him. They do have enough cash. Uli Hoeness said Ribery was worth over 100 million. Ribery is younger but that sum is astronomical. There is talk of a lure deal where Sneijder and/or Robben will be lured in a deal with BAyern Munich for Ribery. Those two are very good players. Ribery is great but not worth two of them.

So the South African player with the most potential of performing well at the 2010 World Cup is joining a Barclay’s Premier League team. What does “with most potential to do perform well” mean? Let’s say he is the SA player most likely to make the Fifa team of the tournament. I reckon he is unlikely to make it unless he can keep goals out of SA’s net, not as a goalkeeper.

keys to life’s millions of answers text messages that litter the worldwide streets of Tokyo a web of desire excess regime and beautiful people generally looking for love and an imperfect truth sprinkled with the ever-welcomed lies of life

alone

03:00 AM

Fateful Platonism

A science of the future?

Easier

More difficult

Simple, safe and secure

Crash

They meet like two needles in a platinum coated, iron oxide-filled haystack, laced with un-rustable copper, amalgam 686, element 6

boy meets girl

the actor meets his muse

the muse finds her meaning

so they run

and run

hand in hand

but he is so desperate

he has to make it work

broken marriage?

lost friend?

or just good company?

she doesn’t care

she can breathe

breaths of honesty grace her lungs

so she runs

and doesn’t stop

he runs too

experience and prodigy

birds of a feather amongst a flight of cranes

that dwell in automated autobahns of autonomy

04:00 AM

More Than This

She lies hands back upon the soft snow covered meringue cushions

Her form long

Like a personal painting

Decadent yet beautiful

Devoid of seduction

in its spirituality

he is a solemn

guilty of the trivial deed

another artist

or just a bohemian?

FREE OF worry

he leaves

she lies

between activity and sleep

a state of suspended animation

a life suspended

fear still

bliss frozen

worry immobile

perfection realised

or just life “sussed out”

AM

she wakes

a cloud of mist lies upon the city streets like a blanket on a dormant driven people’s playground

Apparently this hunk isn’t just a hit with the ladies, he’s the industry darling. He’s been twice nominated for a golden globe, as a gigolo and as a stoner. Both characters have heart and many ladies like this.

If you want an in-depth bibliography, go to Wikipedia or something. Here are a few quick tips on how to be that dude from Pineapple Express.

Get a degree – eventually. James finished his last year.

Learn ballet so you can pick up chicks like Neve Campell. Her career might have died after The Company but at least she got to dance with Franco. Isn’t it great how I cater for both male and female readers?

Anyway, back to Mr Franco - he smiles a lot. You should smile a lot too.

Wear scarves and be demure.

Ladies seem to agree that he is hottest as Saul from the Pineapple Express. Manohla Dargis wrote: “He’s delightful as Saul, loosey-goosey and goofy yet irrepressibly sexy, despite that greasy curtain of hair and a crash pad with a zero WAF (Woman Acceptance Factor).

Ok, I just preferred that performance to his annoying one as Harry Osborn in the Spiderman trilogy. However, Harry Osborn is supposed to annoy us.

He dresses rather badly by Blackwell’s standards in that movie. Hippie-chic. Maybe it would be better called stoner chic. There’s no such thing as stoner chic. OK, maybe he’ll try hobo chic in his next movie.

Speaking of hippies, he’s playing that dude who wrote a really long poem, Allen Ginsberg in his next movie.

Wear Lennon-esque glasses – he seems to wear those in the streets. He’s got them in his Wiki picture, but they aren’t rose-tinted.Incredible Sulk becomes incredible HulkMay 25th, 2009 . Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »Tags: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Anelka

Nicholas Anelka is really good at scoring or he’s just the final piece of every Chelsea move that works without Lamps scoring at the end.

Last season, he scored once in the league and missed the final penalty in the champs league final. Hence, he decided he’d do better, I reckon. Well, no hey, so he scored 19 in 37 games, with two assists. That’s a special rebirth. He also pipped whiney Ronaldo; gotta love that!

Anelka is the current Ruud van N. of the Premier League - the garbage collector.

Chelsea would be very stupid to sell a player who has hit, the final wind of his career.

He can move - quickly - he’s strong. He’s clever. He’s deceptively lazy. He’s the player Berbatov was supposed to be this season, not that Dimitar got that much of a chance.

Drogs may be more talented but Anelka can score. He may sulk but he doesn’t dive very often. I reckon he realises he needs to work for his place.

This is his first golden boot. 19 goals is a good return. Some seasons have seen golden boot winners exceed the 20s. His tally of 19 is the second lowest top scorer tally in Premier League history, with 1997-98 and 1998-99 seeing the award won by a tied group of three players on 18 on both occasions. Still, he’s scored a goal every second game; that’s always impressive.

If Chelsea sell him, Marseille beckons. Bordeaux and PSG don’t really get on, so don’t expect him to join his old team yet again.

Its hard enough to be a student and keep up with the latest fashion trends – never mind keeping it up in winter. Waking up in the freezing cold, before the sun rises, and struggling through traffic hardly leaves time to style yourself fabulous.

Admittedly, most students can get past the fashion police with a pair of All Stars and decent jeans. But for those who dare to try keeping up with the latest trends, here are some of the most student-friendly picks for winter.

A fitted coat is definitely a must-have for the colder months. South Africa is a bit new to the idea of proper coats (and the cost thereof), but once you get used to having one, you will wear it stukkend.

According to Cosmo, fur coats are in this season, but any practical student would know that it is unlikely to go down well with tree-hugging art students lurking about campus with unlimited supplies of paint. Rather stick to nylon, eh?

Boots are still trendy and if you can really, honestly pull off the ankle cut – then go for it. Oh, and those faux-rabbit-pom-pom-whatever-booties should be thrown out immeditely. It’s time to end the suffering.

Skinny jeans are in (again), but please, if you think your thighs and bum look unusually large when wearing stovepipes - then they probably do. Boys are not exempt from this.

The gargantuan accessories that you already own will have to make room for even bigger decorative pieces. Yep, the chances of your finding anything in your bag this winter are going to be very slim.

Tartan is undoubtedly trendy, but be careful not to over-do it, lest you end up looking like a picnic blanket.

Gold and purple are finding their way into stores - perhaps to counteract all the greys and blacks of mid-recession fashions.

A strong Victorian feel is rearing its head so be sure to incorporate lace and ribbon into any plain outfit to be ahead of the fashion minyons.While the military look is still going strong in men’s fashion, guys too may find themselves with a few ruffles here and there.

A Man’s View

Alistair Anderson

The girls may have their fur or faux fur, but we will always have our wool. Forget the Quicksilver sweaters and embrace that jersey your granny bought you.

If you can get your pants to match your socks and your shoes, you’ll be in the company of well-dressed blokes like Barack Obama. If not, you’re joining Cristiano Ronaldo’s club-Which maybe isn’t such a bad thing.

No matter what your friends tell you, scarves don’t make you look like a “ponce”.

As far as your locks are concerned, you either have wild, unbrushed hair or you cut it really short. Seriously, there is no middle ground. In exam time, you don’t want to grant too much time to grooming. However, shaving is always a good idea. I don’t care how cold it is, lose the beard.

Hugh Jackman may be bringing back the macho man in Wolverine, but that’s no excuse. You don’t want your lady to get annoyed by stubble when you’re trying to keep her warm.

Regarding those formal dinners, apparently white is in. For those who struggle to keep a white suit clean, there’s always the blue blazer. Use dark plastic buttons instead of gold ones for a more modern look.

Liverpool football club needs to get serious - originally published in MarchMay 24th, 2009 . Posted in Uncategorized | No Comments »

I’m tired of my football club not giving enough of a Kenny Dalglish. Manchester United is looking like equalling our record of eighteen first division titles and it’s rather annoying.Yes, that’s “rather annoying”. You would think I would be depressed by how Liverpool has had such a promising first half of the season and such a pathetic second half, so far. I’m sick of drawing matches. Liverpool has become the new Aston Villa and Aston Villa has become the new Arsenal, at least they almost have. They play exciting football but they aren’t quite as consistent as the inconsistent Arsenal have been in their good seasons.Still, Gabriel Agbonlahor is an exciting player. Gareth Barry is a hard-man and even though he attacks more than he defends, he marshals his team much like Patrick Vieira marshalled his. The point is unless Torres is having a good game, we do not have enough to give title-worthy performances.We beat Chelsea 2-0. Torres destroyed them with a brace. Then, we lost in the FA Cup to Everton. Liverpudlians don’t like losing to Everton. Their fans hate it even more. It’s not just that Mikael Arteta and Xabi Alonso are mates. It’s not that Tim Cahill, when he pulls can really get to a world-class player like Steven Gerrard on occasion.Cahill’s the “Wizard of Oz” and he really does live up to that title. He performs magic tricks on the pitch but not often enough. The wizard in the Judy Garland movie is not in the film enough. This is probably because the producers lacked a budget big enough to pay for more special effects. They are always looking for the wizard but they only find him very late in the film. This is after they are tormented by annoying flying dogs and really annoying witches.Liverpool then won matches again and then they lost to one of the most usually boring teams in the Premiership, Middlesborugh. This was only our second loss this season. We then go and defeat Sunderland. Sixteen wins, ten draws and two losses is not good enough when you compare it to Man Utd’s twenty wins, five draws and two losses.On March 14th, we will play Manchester United at Old Trafford. This is where the title is decided.Forget about Chelsea, they are going to be too experimental with player selection and even tactics. Hiddink has potential to bring greatness to Chelsea but he cannot do it over around ten matches. Benitez tinkers more than any manager I have ever seen, apart from, maybe, the fools at Newcastle United. They have often had injury problems in the past, whereas Benitez just likes to play football.Will Manchester United win the title next week? Will Liverpool start another UEFA Champions League comeback but on an arguably larger scale? Will we just take three points from Fergie’s superstars? Will Benitez ever start playing Fifa on a PS3 instead?Manchester United will lose to my boys in red next week. Later on, they will lose the game in hand too. After that, they will go on to take the Premiership but only because the other teams will not have what is required. Rafa is going to be at Liverpool next season. Will we win the Premiership then?We will if he buys six players. Fat chance of that but I refuse to lose faith.Oh well, if I’m lucky Spurs or Newcastle will get relegated. That’s almost as good as winning the Premiership for me. It compensates for a Man U victory, boo ya!« Older Entries

Oscar betting wasn’t pointless a week before, the winners have been known with certainty for months. It’s pretty ridiculous how the media has told the public who will win before the ceremony starts.

I thought I’d be clever and so I bet on “outsiders”. Basically anyone who didn’t win was an outsider.

If you looked at the odds on British bookie, Ladbrokes, you would have seen Jeff Bridges at odds of just over 1-1 for Best Actor for his role in Crazy Heart. Jeremy Renner from The Hurt Locker which won Best Picture and Best Director was at 26-1, so why not go for him.

I thought why not bet on Up In The Air for Best Picture which is topical because it features the most recent economic recession. Why not, I got 9:1 or something, because Hurt Locker was so short at 1,6 or so.

I suppose Iraq was still topical or maybe Hollywood had just been very strict with it? Movies like In The Valley of Elah didn’t win any Oscars so why should Hurt Locker have?

Why, because Hurt Locker is a very good film. It probably helps that both Elah and Locker were written by the same person, Mark Boal then.

So I should have seen Kathryn Bigelow winning best director, being the first female to do so in the awards 82-year history and yet I decided that the Academy would “pull a fast one” and award Quentin Tarantino for Inglourious Basterds, since he hasn’t got the Best Director award before but he won at Cannes in 1994 for Pulp Fiction. So many film nuts think he’s a brilliant talent; I’m less sure on that one.

For once, the judges threw no surprises. Monique won Best Supporting Actress for Precious, Christoph Waltz got Best Supporting Actor for Basterds and Sandra Bullock was awarded for The Blind Side. Even the Best Original Screenplay went to Hurt Locker and Best Adapted Screenplay to Precious.

So much for District 9, then; I suppose South African accents awards do not guarantee.